Learning to Cast a Spell
by RedHeadedGoddess
Summary: Or, How Scorpius Malfoy and James Potter became friends. Scorpius isn't having the best of luck with his first year at Hogwarts. It's past curfew and he's stuck in a hallway on the third floor, a full body bind jinx placed on him. Whose going to help him


**Learning to Cast a Spell**

Or, How Scorpius Malfoy and James Potter became friends

"It's hard. No one looks at us and sees who we are."

Scorpius doesn't even know why, at 12 years old, he is spilling his guts to James Potter, but he is. Maybe it was because James was the one who found him and undid the full body bind curse that had been placed on the younger boy. Or maybe it was because when James had asked him what had happened he had burst into tears. Or maybe it was because earlier that year, Scorpius had confessed to the younger Potter son that he couldn't be in Ravenclaw. That he had to be in Slytherin.

Though if Scorpius had to place a bet on the real reason why he was talking to James Potter it would be, because James was also in a house that was different then his family's house.

James Potter was a Hufflepuff. The truest of the true, the nicest of the nice. And the ones who could make anyone smile during the worst of times.

Scorpius Malfoy was a Ravenclaw. But he didn't feel like it most of the time. He couldn't even beat Rose Weasley. He was the bottom of his class in almost everything. Everything except muggle studies, History of Magic and Herbology. But those weren't good grades he could bring home to his father and grandfather. If they found out his best class was muggle studies, Scorpius would never see the light of day again. No matter how hard he studied, he couldn't get good grades. He had even asked Rose Weasley for help. But to be behind all the other Ravenclaws was to become the practice dummy for all of their spells, hexes, jinxes, curses and potions.

Which was what this had been. He had been caught alone in the third floor corridor that, for some reason, was almost always deserted, and had the full body bind practiced on him until his lip was bleeding and he had a bruise forming over his left eye from all the times he had fallen.

He didn't know how long he had lain there, waiting for someone to come along, when James showed up. He had no idea how he had even known to find him there. No one really came down here, why should James? And all he had was his wand and a bit of old parchment. But he had helped Scorpius all the same, and for that, the blond was grateful.

"Just because I'm a Malfoy, Papa expected me to be in Slytherin. Though he actually told Grandfather off when he got upset that I wasn't in the family house. But Papa wants me to be the seeker for Quidditch, like he was. I don't wanna play seeker though. All they do is sit there and wait for this almost impossible to see golden ball to fly in front of them. I wanna be a chaser. They get to do everything!"

He let his legs dangle from the window ledge they were sitting on, staring out over the night sky. "Was your Papa upset that you weren't in Gryffindor? I know Al said that he wasn't upset when _he_ was placed in _Slytherin_ but I find that hard to believe. Cause everyone in your family was in Gryffindor. Everyone!" Scorpius was also easily excited when it came to history. He could name where almost every wizard's family had been placed in Hogwarts, what year they had started and finished school and what they had done. But it wasn't magic. He couldn't cast a cheering charm, couldn't turn a rat into a goblet, he couldn't even stir his potion using magic like some of his year-mates in Ravenclaw.

James laughed a little and ran a hand through his hair. "It wasn't my dad who was upset. Mums was pissed though. Not at me, at the sorting hat. Called it old, stupid. Said it needed to be tossed and a new hat needed to be found and I needed to be resorted." He shook his head as he remembered. "Mums is scary when she's mad. But Dad talked her down. Said the hat wasn't wrong and maybe it was time that families that had been in the same house for generations went into different house. He didn't want us growing up thinking the houses other then Gryffindor were bad houses. Said that was how the last Great War was started and he would do anything to keep that from happening again."

Scorpius laughed and smiled brightly. "Papa said something like that to Grandfather. That he would rather I be Gryffindor then have me become the next Dark Lord. And at least in Ravenclaw I could still be a Malfoy because my great, great, great Aunt something or other was a Ravenclaw. Even though she is only related by marriage. And Mama had a cousin in Ravenclaw, though he died in the war so I never met him and she never brought him up until this year so I kinda think she made him up to make me feel better."

Scorpius paused and bit his lip, looking at James. "Plus Daddy told me that I have a cousin that was in Gryffindor. And he finished school just a few years ago. I haven't heard of him at home but...But I know he's real cause Al told me about him. Theodore Lupin. So...So I could have even gone into Gryffindor...But I think that would have been worse then what I go through now."

James raised an eyebrow and shifted to face the younger boy. "Why do you think that? All the Gryffindors I know are nice."

"Of course they are nice to you. You're a _Potter_ and a _Weasley_! But I'm a _Malfoy_! Everyone thinks I'm going to become the next great Dark Wizard or something."

"Are you?"

Scorpius was taken by surprise by James' question and he quickly shook his head. "No way! I'm not great at magic. There is no way I would be good at the Dark arts." James laughed at the boy's words. But he stopped when Scorpius' tone lost the surprise it had first held. "Besides, the only thing I would change about the world is how everyone fights about where they are from. And doing that by fighting would be stupid. And it wouldn't happen. It doesn' tmatter which history you look at, ours or muggles, the bad guy who tries to change the world by force always lose."

James raised an eyebrow. "You sure know quite a bit about the muggle word for being only eleven and a Malfoy."

Scorpius wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms. "I'm twelve! My birthday was December seventeenth so I've been twelve for a whole month now. And Mama and Papa wanted me to know about the muggle world too. So did Grandmama. She was actually the one who talked Papa into it. Said she didn't want me raised up the way he had been, thinking that purebloods were better then everyone else and that if he learned anything from when he was in school it should have been that times are changing and we had to change with them." Scorpius repeated the words from memory; word for word as he had heard them when he was seven and his parents had first started teaching him about things outside the magical world.

James looked over the blond in front of him and chewed the inside of his cheek. "Listen, Malfoy-"

"Scorpius." He saw James raise an eyebrow in question. "My name. It's_ Scorpius_. Not Malfoy. I'm not Malfoy Malfoy. I'm Scorpius Malfoy. Scor-pi-us."

James laughed and reached over to ruffle Scorpius' hair. The younger boy squeaked and tried to duck but couldn't stop James from ruffling his hair. "Sorry, mate. Scorpius, then, Why did you let those other kids practice on you? Why didn't you use a spell on them? Fight back?"

James watched as Scorpius' fair skin flushed, the red creeping up his neck to his cheeks and across the bridge of his nose. He looked at his lap and played with a loose thread in his robe. "I can't...I can't do magic."

James blinked and studied the boy in front of him. That didn't sound right. Scorpius came from a long line of magical people who were known to be good at magic. Maybe not great, not the best, but the Malfoys had never produced a non magical child. Why would Scorpius be unable to cast a spell? He bit his cheek in thought, looking over the boy some more. He had an idea but he wanted to see if it was right before he said anything. "What's the incantation to unlock something?"

"Alohomora." Scorpius said without even thinking.

"What does Cave Inimicum do?"

"It's a spell designed to keep enemies out, or away from you. Depending on the caster the spell can last for up to two weeks so long as nothing is done to draw attention to the area the spell is cast around."

"What spell can you use to heal damage done to someone?"

"Episkey. Though it can't reverse damage done by dark magic, attack from a magical creature that is of greater strength then a fairy or one with malicious intent."

James stared at Scorpius. James had only heard of the spells he had mentioned. He couldn't cast them; much less recite exactly what they did without having to think about it for a while. He just wanted to check one more thing before he would be sure. His father had told him this spell; told him to never use it and then told him about the one time he had used it. On Scorpius' father. "What spell was created about seventy years ago that cuts a living person, cannot be healed after about fifteen minutes left untreated, and can only be used wandlessly by the strongest of wizards?"

"Sectumsempra." And then Scorpius clapped his hands over his mouth and looked at James with wide silver eyes. His wide gaze looked over the older male carefully, as if looking for something to have changed.

"Scorpius?" the boy didn't look up to meet James' gaze. "Scorpius!" He jumped and looked up at the other, his eyes still wide and his hands still placed over his mouth. "What's wrong?"

Slowly the blond lowered his hands from his mouth. "Papa told me to never, ever use that spell...Not even to say it cause only bad wizards know it. Wizards that want to hurt people and I don't want to hurt anyone." He said shakily.

James blinked and thought he had figured out. "Was that the first spell you learned? The first bit of magic you had heard of?" Scorpius nodded slowly. "It isn't that you're not able to cast spells, you're scared to!" he looked at Scorpius with a grin but saw a confused look on the other's face. "The first thing you learned about magic was to not use a spell because it hurt others. Magic is tied into our emotions. If you don't put your heart into it the spell won't work. If you don't want it to work, it won't. Do you get it?" Scorpius slowly nodded. "Good. Try casting lumos."

Scorpius slowly picked up his wand but James could see his hand shaking. He shook his head. "No. You have to calm down. You have to want the spell to work. Take a deep breath and think of making this hallway a little brighter."

Scorpius slowly nodded. He closed his eyes and pictured the hand movement needed to cast the spell. A slight flick of the wrist. "Lumos." He whispered. He opened his eyes and stared at the flickering light at the end of his wand tip. "I did it! James, I did it!" The blond smiled brightly at James who grinned at him slightly.

"That's great." He watched the light die. "Now we work on making it stronger."


End file.
